The need for immediate medical treatment, hereinafter called a medical emergency, sometimes arises during travel or when a person is otherwise away from his or her domicile. For example, a person traveling on an airplane between New York and Los Angeles may experience a medical emergency such as a heart attack, stroke, or other injury.
As used herein, a person in transit or away from his/her domicile that experiences a medical emergency is referred to as a “patient,” and includes, but is not limited to (1) passengers, crew members, and anyone traveling, regardless of the mode of transportation, which may be vehicles such as airplanes, boats, trains, buses and automobiles, and (2) any person away from his/her domicile. “Domicile” means a person's permanent residence. “Medical facility” means any medical care provider, and includes hospitals, clinics, doctor's offices, emergency medical technician (“EMT”) services and ambulance services. “Suitable stopping points” means stopping points, such as airports, ports, bus stations and train stations, suitable for accommodating a vehicle on which a patient is resident, if the patient is in a vehicle. For example, if the patient is on a plane, a suitable stopping point is an airport with the proper size and facilities to accommodate a landing.
When a medical emergency arises while a patient is aboard a vehicle, a patient may sometimes be treated while on the vehicle, for example, by a crew member or passenger, until the vehicle reaches its ultimate destination. In some cases, however, a patient cannot wait to reach the ultimate destination (e.g., Los Angeles) to visit a medical facility. It is therefore desirable for the patient (or someone else on board the vehicle, such as a crew member) to be able to quickly identify (1) the location of one or more medical facilities near the vehicle or otherwise along the travel route, and/or (2) contact information related to such medical facilities.
Medaire, Inc., of Phoenix, Ariz. provides a MedLink® emergency medical service that, among other things, identifies one or more qualified medical facilities near a specific point on a travel route. MedLink® services are provided to common carriers, such as commercial airlines; to private aircraft; to military and private maritime vessels; and to corporate travelers who may be traveling by various modes of transportation anywhere throughout the world. To provide MedLink® services, a database of medical facilities is created, maintained and updated. The database preferably includes for each medical facility in the database: (1) the location (e.g., address), (2) contact information, including the phone number, (3) the type of medical services provided, (4) a quality rating for the facility based on services provided, and (5) languages spoken at the facility. Following is an example of the use of this MedLink® service.
A passenger on a commercial flight suffers a concussion midway between Belize and Tokyo. To obtain medical assistance for this medical emergency, a flight crew member contacts Medaire, Inc., thereby accessing MedAire's MedLink® service. The MedAire personnel contacted by the flight crew member is called a “communications specialist.” Once notified of the medical emergency, the communications specialist determines if the medical emergency requires consultation with a physician. This initial determination is sometimes referred to as triaging. If the medical emergency requires consultation with a physician, the communications specialist contacts an emergency room physician. The physician may then direct either the flight crew or passengers in treating the patient.
Depending on the severity of the medical emergency, the physician may recommend that the patient be immediately transported to a medical facility. In that case, the communications specialist determines the location of the airplane by asking a crew member, accesses MedAire's database of medical facilities, which includes at least the location of each medical facility, and assists the flight crew in identifying a suitable medical facility to handle the medical emergency. This identification is made based upon one or more of the following factors (1) the location of the airplane, (2) the respective location of each of the medical facilities in the database, (3) the locations of airports at which the plane can land, (4) the nature of the medical emergency (e.g., the type of injury or sickness), (5) the types of services offered by each of the medical facilities (e.g., preferred medical facilities are those equipped, either with appropriate personnel and/or medical devices, to handle that particular type of medical emergency). The flight crew or communications specialist then contacts the airport designated for the unscheduled landing, and may contact the medical facility or facilities identified to handle the medical emergency.
A flowchart showing the method described above for determining a qualified medical facility is illustrated in FIG. 1. The method generally includes identifying one or more medical facilities 10, which includes at least obtaining the location and preferably the contact information for each. Once one or more medical facilities are identified, the medical specialties each offers are preferably identified (in order to determine the suitability of each for handling different types of emergencies), and each medical specialty it offers are reviewed 11. The facilities are evaluated by obtaining information related to each medical facility's personnel and medical equipment, preferably by someone from MedAire, Inc. contacting the medical facility (either in person and/or by fax and/or by phone) and asking questions to obtain such information. Information related to each medical facility is stored in a database 12 for retrieval when needed.
As shown in step 13 of FIG. 1, a person, such as a crew member aboard a plane, contacts a communications specialist requesting the location of a medical facility, and provides the current location of the patient and the nature of the medical emergency. Using the current location of the patient and the nature of the medical emergency, the communications specialist retrieves the names, locations and other relevant information in the database related to one or more of the medical facilities 14 and provides this information to the crew member 15. The crew member and/or the communications specialist then identifies, using one or more of the criteria previously discussed, a suitable medical facility to handle the medical emergency.
While this method is effective, it requires verbal communications between a person who is usually in an aircraft or other vehicle and a communications specialist. Because wireless communications are subject to interference, such as interference caused by noise, weather, or electromagnetic interference (EMI) of other devices, these communications may be impossible to initiate or may be interrupted. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to identify one or more medical facilities along a travel path without the necessity of real-time verbal communications.